The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said the r-word several times in the
course of an hour last week. The resulting reverberations should finally
start a debate on the private rented sector crisis in London and elsewhere.

The r-word uttered was Rachman, the name of the notorious Notting Hill slum
landlord of the 1950s and 1960s. The mayor — who would not like to be
remembered as the man who presided over a collapse in standards of the
capital’s homes to let — is warning of the threat of a return to the Rachman
era.